I belong to a middle class group (my income is very high by Russian standards, especially for St.Petersburg) and I don't think money can buy everything. Rather I think that money is a good tool. Working people here think that money is a target of life. And they also beleive that buying and selling can make them important and rich.

The way you put it, market economy appears to be an ideology. An ideolody with no real beleif and/or support. Another slogan, perhaps.

Incredible will to live and adoptability is something that kept FEW people continue do something in order to stay alive. Not all of them. There have been two ways: honest and dishonest (stealing). My brother, for example, had good times being an electronic engineer at a military and space oriented enterprise and later on he worked as a sales person in a shop (if you feel the difference), he was 40 at that time. He was not alone. Completely disoriented people really dissappeared. Self-destruction always existed, always, and it increased since 1985 (look at alcohol consumation figures, drugs, etc.)